[End] Things She Do [Thalia x Jak]

[Bee]

Wicked wiggly noodle, trying slippy-slide out of her grasp! She tried to clamp around him harder, but he was so slimy and blood-slick and gooey that she inadvertently gave his sleek snaky body the pressure it needed to pop! right out of the loving embrace of her tentacle and away, like some evil little demon noodle baby that had the ability to be born as a projectile.

Oooh, but she would get her noodle back, all of her would get her creeper-noodle back, she thought, pulling her discarded mask back on.

One Thalia became three; three happy bouncing Thalias, their bloody and slimy tentacles retracted back to normal size and waggling merrily even has the one spasmed in pain, three Thalias giggling around their noodle.

"Don't be angry," they said playfully. "Love us? We'll find your sister, she'll be okay, don't be a mad noodle, we love you."

Basic Magical Ability: She can act charismatic and persuasive at times, whether or not she actually has the natural charm and grace to pull it off.

Blank Mask: This strange mask appears to be carved from white marble and is very cold to the touch, though it is very light. It will only bequeath its powers to one person in its time of existence, though it does not form to the face and can be taken off and placed on at will, though its powers will only activate when worn.
The mask, though delicately carved with designs of butterflies and swirls on the side, has no color and an absolute blank slate for a face. Only the owner is capable of seeing through it, regardless of it lacking in eye holes. Once placed on, the owner will find themselves tingling with new-found power from the mask.
While wearing it, twice a day, they will be capable of vanishing completely from sight for up to two minutes. While invisible they make noise only when they breathe or speak, they are invisible to all except those with magical abilities pointed toward seeing the unseen.
They will also be able to, once a day, create duplicates of themselves. These duplicates look more like them than they do to all but her immediate family. She can create up to three of them, and they all mimic exactly what she says as she says it. If they run farther than ten feet from her though, they begin to fade away. When struck, they vanish at once and cannot be summoned again for a full 24 hours. The duplicates are capable of using her basic abilities (2-10) for themselves.
This mask has more to it than meets the eye, even for the owner. Every night at three am. the mask glows with a dull sheen and gives the wearer the ability to turn whatever she walks over (the only exception being sentient people) into beautiful, solid marble. While she does this, all sound around her ceases and she moves in a slow, dream-like state.

[The Jenn]

Jak slipped and wriggled and popped right out of her furry grip, flying a few feet away before rolling and coiling and thudding on the ground. He slithered around in pain, hissing as he coiled even tighter and tried to ignore her for a few seconds. He had to figure out a way to find his sister! He had to find a way... didn't bats have some way to find stuff? He didn't know. He'd tried being a bat before, but he hadn't known what to do with the extra sense. It was just too weird.

He looked up as her voice suddenly tripled, staring at the three tentacled and maned Corvie mixes that circled him. The way she moved and cooed at him, with that sweet, sincere voice... she sounded like she really wanted to help. Like she could find a way. Maybe she really did love him? If she turned Dell into a butterfly, maybe there was some way...

"Uuuuum. You and your sisters, can you help?"

[Bee]

They smiled coyly. "Hm-hmmmm," they said.

Their Hair wiggled about gleefully; if they could find creeper-noodle's sister, maybe there wouldn't be any need to kill him anymore, because their noodle was ever so fond of his buttercloak (and a live squishy was really so much better than a dead one; dead ones were all cold and rotty and smelled funny and didn't hug you back ever, though they were much better listeners).

"She's not a butterfly anymore"--they didn't have a very secure grasp of time at the moment, not at all, but they figured that at least one two three four five minutes had to have passed since their sweet noodly love dissolved into blood and tears, right?--"she went poof back into a Dell, we just have to find where she landed and she'll be aaaaall snuggly again."

[The Jenn]

Jak wanted to believe absolutely everything she said. His metaphorical hackles were still raised from the violence and the blood and the ouch, but she was being so very nice. It would have been disconcerting if he didn't want it so badly. He needed his sister to return to him. He couldn't live anymore without his family. Her voice echoed in his head, pleading for assistance, and it was all he could do to keep his thoughts straight and not let her take them over.

"Then let's find her!" he growled, springing up and changing into an animal form, a canine with a droopy face and a sensitive nose. "All of you, spread out and help me find her before she gets all smooshed or someone takes her or the popping happens instead of the poofing! Or I'll bite you again. It maybe rip one of the tentacles off of one of you."

[Bee]

They bristled at the mention of taking a tentacle off, the broad smiles on their faces taking on a dangerous edge, though their creeper wouldn't be able to see it past the mask. How could he speak so callously, when the tentacle he had chewed so badly was aching and bleeding right in front of him?

And he wanted them to separate. No no noooo, never ever that, they had to stay together, otherwise two little Thalias would fade into nothing and then there would only be one lonely Thalia left. They liked being many Thalias; everything was better in threes; it was a magic number.

They took on hunched, defensive postures, voices childish and sing-song. "We caaaaaan't leave each other. We'll die. And then no one will help you find your sister and you'll be all alone forever and always."

[The Jenn]

Jak stared at each of them for a moment, evaluating the sincerity of their words. Sure, they seemed to mean it. And they were so very pretty, now that he could see them from all angles. "This is all of your fault. If anything happens to her, you'll die anyway. Because she's my family. And I'm never alone, because I've got more family. I want your help to find her more, though, and everything will be perfect again if she's okay. Okay? Yeeeeah, okay. So let's go."

He pressed his sensitive canine nose to the ground, which didn't do a whole lot of good, since she hadn't walked. Aw, man. And here he thought he'd had a good idea. He sighed, the sound whistling through his nose, and turned to look at her. "Where did she go? You were distraaacting me from her flittery flutterings. You need to tell me where to look."

And if they didn't find her soon, the wailing in Jak's head was going to drive him absolutely mad, however nice and pretty and bloody these girls seemed.

[Bee]

Family, family. They wanted to be with Mama, all of a sudden; Mama would help them make things go all explodey; they loved big fiery booms. Noodlelove would make a very nice explosion; noodle-bits and tubes flying everywhere.

And wasn't Tosiek coming to visit them? They thought they remembered seeing him...maybe that had been a daydream...Their tricky floaty memories were drifting away from them, wafting away like the butterfly sister. Oh ho, they would catch them! One memory was no match for three Thalias! ...Or was it?

They focused their attention on their noodle, who wasn't a noodle anymore but a puppy with its wrinkly face falling off all over the place, and said, "It's all just math, very simple, no-brain; how far can a butterfly fly in five minutes? What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen butterfly? Hisstor or Highland?"

[The Jenn]

Jak stared at them, his canine head slowly tilting and twisting to the side. Watching them all at the same time was a really huge pain. He decided to grow another two eyes in the sides of his head, right before his ears, so that he could keep an eye on them. All of them.

Hey, it worked! Pretty well, too. He could watch them all, and blink four eyes instead of two! Hah! Four-eyes! Fun.

The voice in his head was still driving him three shades of crazy, convincing him that she was lost, bereft, cold, alone, and nothing without her wonderful brother, who she had taken to so well over the past little while and who she just couldn't live without! Or, well, un-live. Since, y'know. The living bit. It was over.

"Uhh. Math? Like, numbers? I never learned much of those. My brother does numbers for me. Numbers and letters aren't really my... y'know. Thing." Amhal had forced himself to know things. Jak hadn't really cared. "You do the numbers, and nom them until they make sense to you, and then let's go. But not to the Highlands. I think that's where people who don't want to see me yet are, and I want it to be a biiiig surprise when I get to see them again, and not to Hisstor, cause I'm not wearing my clacky bone-butt yet, and C'MON already, let's GO! My sister neeeeeeds me." His words ended on a pained whine and he pawed at one of his ears, the voice almost painful.

[Bee]

He had more eyes! Like a spider. They loved spiders, especially the little lightning-fast jumpy ones that terrified their sister when they fell from the ceiling and leaped all over her. But he was being all pouty and antsy now and he might even have been in the beginning stages of angst.

No need for that! Little butterflies didn't run far away from home, especially when they got distracted by pretty things like sweet nectar-filled flowers. There were plenty of little flowers right here around the fields.

"She can't be more than a few hundred skips away!" In merry tandem, they tried to skip, but the bounce made their mangled tentacle twinge and twitch all unhappy-like, so they abandoned that unit of measurement in favor of another, more comfortable one. "That makes six hundred or so leisurely strolls. Come, let us stroll! North-east, that's where it looked like she was going!"

[The Jenn]

Jak followed along in a state somewhere between panic, pain, and fascination. They really were pretty, charming bleeding things. Still, if they didn't find his sister soon...

He followed along with a small whine as she led them, first at a quick pace and then at a slower one. A lot of his cheer had gone, replaced by a sense of urgency. The more he thought about it, the more her voice insisted that he hurry! A bunch of strolls later and he had to stop and paw at his ears ineffectually. It was a useless gesture. He just felt like he needed to make it, what with those painful sounds escalating inside of his brain. She was yelling! Shouting! She couldn't be without him!

After more stumbling strolls, he let out a loud howl, shaking his head hard enoug for the slap of skin-on-ears-on-skin to be loud in the stillness of the night. "No! Dell! I'm coming! Stop it, I... auuugh!" He panted and shivered, shaking his head more, before half-glazed eyes looked up at the three Thalias. "You- you've lost her for goood. This is all your fault. Your blood's proving it. Guilty people bleed. I'm guilty aaaaall the time, and I bleed. It's your fault!"

Time for another lunge, this one less sane, more distracted, and less coordinated.